abraham lincoln's assassination

by:christian olson

abraham lincoln's assassination

by:christian olson

abraham lincoln's assassination

abraham lincoln's assassination was carried out by John Wilkes Booth.A famous stage actor.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in rural Kentucky and went on to become the 16th President of the United States. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery. He was assassinated on April 15, 1865.

John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of president Abraham Lincon

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.

John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of president Abraham Lincon part 2

Abraham Lincoln’s killer,John Wilkes Booth, was a Maryland native born in 1838 who remained in the North during the Civil War despite his Confederate sympathies. As the conflict entered its final stages, he and several associates hatched a plot to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, Lincoln failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth came up with a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.

About John Wilkes Booth

On May 10, 1838, John Wilkes Booth was born near Bel Air, Maryland. Booth was the second youngest of ten children. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, was a well-known actor and was eccentric, with a reputation for heavy drinking. John and his siblings were raised on a farm, which was worked by the family's slaves. As a youngster, Booth attended the Milton Boarding School for Boys—and later St. Timothy's Hall—sporadically. From a very young age, he was described as disarmingly handsome. To those who knew him, it seemed only natural that he would follow in his father's footsteps, by gracing the stage with his charismatic presence. When he turned 17, Booth made his acting debut in Baltimore, with a role in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. His early performances were such a hit that Booth was soon invited to tour all over the country with a Shakespearean acting company based in Richmond, Virginia. In 1862, Booth made his New York debut, this time as the lead in Richard III. The New York Herald described him as a "veritable sensation." When describing his natural inclination for the role, Booth tellingly expressed his credo with the declaration, "I am determined to be a villain." While on tour, he achieved national praise as an up-and-comer, but a respiratory illness in 1863 meant Booth had no choice but to temporarily leave from the stage. Just days prior to delivering his famed Gettysburg Address that same year, Lincoln watched a performance by Booth in a play called The Marble Heart at Ford’s theater.